Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Grand Serenade plays a release show at White Water Tavern Thursday night.

GRAND SERENADE10 p.m. White Water Tavern. $5.

A few weeks ago, a couple of 180-gram vinyl copies of Grand Serenade's latest album on Max Recordings arrived at the Times mega-compound hidden deep within the bowels of subterranean Little Rock. Nobody knows how they got here. They just showed up, the intended recipients' names scrawled in all caps on Post-it notes stuck to the front.

A few spins reveal a band that traffics in moody modern rock that never comes across as self-indulgent and is a welcome respite from the current glut of glo-fi or chill-wave or whatever. The album reminds this writer of Radiohead's late '90s output, only not as freaked-out and melodramatic.

The album is called "Lake Country" (a nod no doubt to the band's hometown of Heber Springs) and was recorded at Blue Chair Studio in tiny Austin, Ark. It has a big, warm sound, with Pink Floydian guitar solos, drums and cymbals that pound and crash and singing that's reminiscent of Thom Yorke or maybe a less bombastic Jeff Buckley.

It's really good stuff and you can pick up a copy at this record release show for $10.

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